California man survives frigid five-hour night swim with a friendly seal as his guide
By Yaron Steinbuch
February 17, 2022 12:35pm Updated
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His fate was seal-ed.
A California man thought he would die when he fell off his fishing boat and into the frigid Pacific Ocean — but a friendly harbor seal showed up in the nick of time and helped get him to safety.
Scott Thompson, a sea urchin diver, blamed a lapse in judgment for the mishap that sent him falling off his boat into the Santa Barbara Channel in the middle of the night last month.
“I thought to myself, ‘Great, this is how I’m going to die. Today is the day I’m going to die,’” Thompson, who was wearing nothing but his shorts and T-shirt at the time, told KABC-TV.
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“Even putting on a wet suit, being prepared, getting in that water, and swimming to the platform was horrendous,” Paul Amaral, president of towing company Channel Watch Marine told KABC.
“I can’t imagine being in the water with shorts and a T-shirt at night. There was no moon, I mean it was pitch black,” he said.
In his post, Thompson wrote: “I’m a believer that there is a higher power now. I don’t know what it is, but there is a power greater than me. That was shown to me and I will never doubt that for the rest of my life.”
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Guess someone can enumerate for all us land lubbers what this fellow did wrong. I’ve read about dolphins and porpoises rescuing sailors adrift and downed military pilots. It was always chalked up to the animals being “playful”. But, maybe it’s just “Guardian Angels” is wet form.
In any event, an inspirational story.
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